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News
‘You’re looking’: Chris Sutton now predicts how Celtic will perform in the Champions League this season
Before the season kicked off, the Celtic fans must have been looking forward to watching their side take part in the upcoming Champions League campaign.
With an elite manager in Brendan Rodgers at the helm and a treble-winning squad full of internationals, Europe was a journey that the supporters were relishing for once this season.
Fast forward eight weeks later and Rodgers is under pressure, the squad is decimated by injuries and a lot of work is needing to be done in the transfer window. Oh, and there are less than three days to do it.
Football is brilliant. It never stands still for a second but for the Celtic fans, a feeling of trepidation is now hanging in the air at the thought of facing Europe’s elite with the current squad that they have at their disposal.
Former Celtic striker, Chris Sutton, is already looking ahead to the competition and has made a grim prediction that won’t fill the supporters with great confidence.
Sutton said [ podcast], “The issue is that Brendan Rodgers has taken over from a position of strength. And if you want to compare that to Ange Postecoglou when he first arrived, he took over from a position of weakness and there had to be patience.
“But in many respects, Celtic should not be in this position from when Brendan took over. Because all the talk when Brendan took over was about making the next step in the Champions League. And it looks like Celtic are in a race to compete in the Scottish Premiership this season at this moment in time.
“I was looking forward to the Champions League draw a couple of weeks ago, but now you’re looking at this Celtic squad thinking, ‘Is this squad capable of actually getting a point in the Champions League or competing in the Champions League?’
“And let’s get it right, at this moment in time, it doesn’t look that way.”
Such a turn of events isn’t it? Now, come Friday, everything may well be hunky-dory. Rodgers might have his four priority signings in the building and we could look good to go for not only the league but in Europe too.
Many would say that the way it’s looking right now, Celtic will be lucky to get half the players that they are looking for due to the time constraints the approaching deadline is placing.
But Rodgers must do his very best to ensure that these deals are done because Sutton is correct. Forget Europe, Celtic could be battling to keep their SPFL title if the squad isn’t strengthened.
In other news, ‘Really contentious’: Chris Sutton says Brendan Rodgers has already made a mistake at Celtic